Licensed Battlefield Guide Phil Lechak continues taking us around the Camp Letterman Hospital site with a segment on the Camp Letterman Cemetery. Phil is standing at the cemetery site, and pointing downhill to show that this location had good drainage away from the hospital. A Camp Letterman guard was quoted in a letter as saying, “…Those who die in the hospital are buried in the field to the south; there is a large graveyard there already. The dead are laid in rows with a rough board placed at the head of each man.” This view was taken facing northeast at approximately 2:00 PM on Sunday, January 25, 2009.

This is the fourth installment of Licensed Battlefield Guide Phil Lechak’s tour of Camp Letterman. In our previous posts, we covered the general history of the site, the Operating Tent Area, the view from what Phil calls “Hospital Hill,” and the embalming tent. Today we will view the location of the Camp Letterman Graveyard. The Adams Sentinel stated about Camp Letterman on August 17, 1863, “Deaths do daily occur, but from the severity of many wounds, this cannot be prevented. All that skill and careful nursing can do, however is being done.”

Camp Letterman Part 1 with Licensed Battlefield Guide Phil Lechak on November 15, 2008.
Camp Letterman Part 2 with Licensed Battlefield Guide Phil Lechak on November 17, 2008.
Camp Letterman Part 3 with Licensed Battlefield Guide Phil Lechak on February 4, 2009.
National Park Service seasonal ranger program on Civil War Medicine on August 5, 2008.
National Park Service seasonal ranger program on nurse Salome “Sallie” Myers on August 1, 2008.
National Park Service seasonal ranger program on nurse Cornelia Hancock on July 24, 2008.

This is a view of the site with locations where we took the videos numbered inside a white star. The mobile homes are no longer in this location. Videos 1-15 may be seen in our previous posts on Camp Letterman. This map was created on January 31, 2009. Video #10 is at the same location as video #1. Today we will show videos 16-18 which were taken at the same location.

Here is a map of the Camp Letterman area in 1863. Today we are showing the “Hospital Graveyard Site” near the middle right of the map. This map was created on February 22, 2005 by the United States Department of the Interior, and the National Park Service.

In Video #16, Phil starts us off in the embalming tent and shows the graveyard area, and explains why it was placed in this location. This view was taken looking northeast to northwest to southeast and back to northeast again at approximately 2:00 PM on Sunday, January 25, 2009.

When one thinks about the patients at Camp Letterman, sometimes one forgets that there were many Confederate patients in the hospital and buried here. This is a picture of Confederates at the Camp Letterman hospital. This view was taken in the summer of 1863.

In Video #17, Phil describes the method by which the soldiers were buried. A soldier was buried by his date of death, not by his skin color or country for which he fought. This view was taken facing mostly northeast at approximately 2:00 PM on Sunday, January 25, 2009.

We are fortunate to have the listing of soldiers at Camp Letterman compiled by Gettysburg National Military Park senior historian Kathy George Harrison. Here is a sample page. The complete 43 page document is available in a pdf file accessed by clicking here. The size is approximately 286 KB. We very much appreciate Kathy’s sharing this research material from her files.

In Video #18, Phil tells us how having the burial information was very meaningful on a tour that he had with a relative of a soldier who died at Camp Letterman. This view was taken facing east at approximately 2:00 PM on Sunday, January 25, 2009.